Twilight of the Cockroaches Movie Review

Twilight of the Cockroaches/Gokiburi is anthropomorphism at its most extreme. Japanese animator Hiroaki Yoshida creates plenty of sweet little creatures with highly appealing faces in the hope that we will identify with a kingdom of humanized cockroaches. If you can accept that premise, you may not have any problem with the rest of the film, including the following line from a “roachette” named Naomi, torn between her poetic boyfriend Ichiro and Hens the warrior: “I'm pregnant. I don't think the litter is Ichiro's.” According to the press kit, the director “fear(s) that Japan will be treated like loathsome cockroaches by the rest of the world if it continues to aggravate other countries with unfair trade practices…. (He) hopes everyone will see a little of himself or herself in the cockroaches who thought the high life would go on forever.” Small children may not understand the sophistication of Yoshida's theme and they may overidentify with real-life roaches when their parents try to protect their food supply from invasion. Yoshida's concept may be a bit far-fetched for adult audiences, too. You may not be crazy about the idea of peaceful coexistence with cockroaches, or feel guilty about evicting them from your living space. If there is one type of movie that demands dubbing, rather than subtitles, it is the animated film. Many of the backgrounds are too light to read the English subtitles, and the synopsis for Twilight of the Cockroaches (with Yoshida's comments) didn't even help the press all that much. It's hard for me to imagine an American filmmaker getting away with a film that depicts Japanese industrialists as greedy cockroaches. Yoshida's cautionary tale strains to fit his good intentions, and the results, even for die-hard animation fans, may be bewildering. AKA: Gokiburi. woof!

1990 105m/C JP D: Hiroaki Yoshida; V: Kaoru Kobayashi, Setsuko Karamsumarau. VHS, LV